Labor at the Crossroads: What It Means for Fixed Income
DoubleLine Deputy Chief Investment Officer Jeffrey Sherman explores the forces shaping today’s fixed income landscape and examines the evolving U.S. economic backdrop—where labor market dynamics, consumer resilience, and fiscal policy intersect to define the path forward for growth, inflation, and interest rates. Amid ongoing debates about Fed independence, persistent deficits, and tariff-driven inflation, he argues that labor remains the pivotal variable for policy and markets as 2026 approaches.
Turning to markets, Sherman highlights a fixed income environment marked by strong year-to-date returns, tightening credit spreads, and falling rate volatility. Despite geopolitical noise and fiscal strain, credit and securitized assets have delivered healthy performance, with riskier sectors showing resilience. He discusses yield curve positioning, inflation expectations, and global bond market dynamics, emphasizing how shorter-duration assets, agency mortgages, and select structured products can offer relative value in today’s late-cycle environment.
The webcast also reviews performance and positioning across four DoubleLine strategies—the Low Duration Bond Fund, Flexible Income Fund, Core Fixed Income Fund, and Opportunistic Core Bond ETF. Each fund has outperformed its benchmark since inception, balancing credit exposure with disciplined duration management. Sherman details how the portfolios are currently emphasizing higher-quality credit, agency mortgages, and shorter cash flows—positioned for stability, yield, and flexibility in an uncertain policy environment.
0:00 Intro 4:43 Macro Update 33:01 Market Update 45:22 Fund Overview 53:51 Q&A
Past performance does not guarantee future results. Investing involves risk including the risk of principal loss. For Important Information about the funds, go to: https://doubleline.com/
Link to the DoubleLine Low Duration Bond Fund Prospectus
Link to the DoubleLine Core Fixed Income Fund Prospectus
Link to the DoubleLine Flexible Income Fund Prospectus
Link to the DoubleLine Opportunistic Core Bond ETF Prospectus
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DoubleLine ETFs are distributed by Foreside Fund Services, LLC.
Jeffrey Sherman, DoubleLine’s Deputy Chief Investment Officer, is a thought leader, portfolio manager and public speaker in the industry. Mr. Sherman is a member of DoubleLine’s Fixed Income and Global Asset Allocation committees, and he serves as lead portfolio manager for the firm’s multi-sector and derivative-based strategies. In his role, Mr. Sherman guides the investment teams in developing top-down macro views and collaborative asset allocation processes throughout a market cycle. Additionally, he is a member of DoubleLine’s Executive Management Committee. In 2018, Money Management Executive named Mr. Sherman as one of “10 Fund Managers to Watch” in its yearly special report. Prior to joining DoubleLine in 2009, Mr. Sherman was a Senior Vice President at TCW, where he worked as a portfolio manager and quantitative analyst focused on fixed income and real-asset portfolios. Prior to that, he was a statistics and mathematics instructor at the University of the Pacific and Florida State University. Mr. Sherman taught Quantitative Methods for Level I candidates in the USC/CFALA CFA® Review Program for many years. He holds a B.S. in Applied Mathematics from the University of the Pacific and an M.S. in Financial Engineering from Claremont Graduate University. Mr. Sherman is a CFA® charterholder.
